Tatar-Bashkir Report: March 27, 2000

March 27, 2000 00:00 GMT

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Tatar-Bashkir Report: March 27, 2000

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27 March 2000

DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN

Preliminary Election Results In TatarstanAccording to the preliminary data from Tatarstan's Central Election Committee released early on 27 March, the turnout during the Russian presidential elections in Tatarstan was about 77 percent. Some 69 percent of the voters reportedly supported voted for Vladimir Putin. Putin received stronger support from rural regions in the republic where he won some 80 percent of the votes with Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov receiving most of the remaining votes. Two percent of Tatarstan's voters supported both Grigory Yavlinsky and Aman Tuleev, while 1 percent voted for Vladimir Zhirinovsky and less than 1 percent chose "none of the above." An Election Committee official told an RFE/RL correspondent in Kazan the same day that votes are still being counted and some of the figures could change.

Shaimiev Comments On Dictatorship IssueIn an interview with Russian RTR TV on 26 March, Tatarstan's president, Mintimer Shaimiev, was asked whether there was a threat of dictatorship in Russia. Shaimiev said that, "whoever becomes the Russian president must be a supporter of democracy. The one who tries to leave the democratic path will face powerful resistance in Russia."

International Observers In TatarstanAccording to Tatarstan's governmental press service on 27 March, the Russian presidential election in Tatarstan was observed by 20 OSCE representatives from Holland, Greece, the U.S., Germany, and Sweden. The second secretary of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, Nail K. Ephird, and the attache, James Howcroft, reportedly also acted as observers during their visit to Tatarstan.